We did it again! At Eucla caravan park we couldn’t resist camping on the rather sloping part with the best view down to the ocean. It took some time to get level, but eventually we managed it. I had to rush off to do the washing so that it would have a chance to be dry by the evening even before we levelled up. There are no dryers here, so we have to peg everything out. At least things will be really fresh.

We had lunch at Mundrabilla and also made a stop to put up the drone. I did a couple of flyovers of the roof which show that the mud did not extend as far as the closest solar panel. Oddly, though the air conditioner is clearly affected, as we can see from the ground, the roof appears clear.

We had dinner at the motel restaurant before coming back to listen to podcasts and music. Stephen had a shower before dinner and I had one just before bed. We pay extra for the showers, $1 for 8 minutes, but the fee for camping is only $30 so it seems reasonable as this whole area is very dry. We have power of course.

Today (Tuesday 11th) was our first really windy day. This morning as we got up and did our usual morning routine the Sherwood was being buffeted around. There was an upside. During the drive it felt like the good ship Sherwood was blessed with a following wind and we were coasting along at 90kms an hour without any effort.

We visited Caiguna Roadhouse and then Cocklebiddy, where we got fuel. We were a bit tempted to go all the way to Eucla in a day, but I felt like it would be too far to drive, especially as I want to do some washing. It means a bit of a effort at the end of the day, not enjoyable after a long day of driving.

I see from the trip planner that we were going to spend the night at the Madura Pass Lookout, but we made it our lunch stop, then drove about 27kms to this campsite, hoping for a bit more shelter from the wind. It is a designated 24hr stop, with clean drop toilets.

Actually, the wind was blowing up dust swirls when we arrived, so we chose to camp on the blue metal near the entrance. It’s also close to the toilets. For quite a long time we were only one of three vans here, but as it got close to sunset the big caravans started rolling in and we are now quite a big village. I think one or two may have gone further into the bush, but most seem to be clustered close to the entry.

By sunset the wind slowly died down and it is now quite peaceful, though a bit colder than the official forecast. Last night we had quite good internet, tonight not so good, but I didn’t have the energy to set up the Starlink. Also, with people driving in it didn’t feel safe to put it out. We don’t want people driving over the cord.

If we don’t have good enough internet I write the daily blog in Word, then transfer to WordPress to upload. That is why there are sometimes two posts in a day.

We are a bit a head of our plan due to being chased out of the Hyden-Norseman Road by the heavy rain. I’m noticing how that my plan was for quite short hops between campsites even now on the Eyre Highway. This route is pretty familiar to us and we want to get to our favourite bits!